Your Highness
by Bazylia de Grean
Summary: Set on Tatooine; Padme and Qui-Gon have a little talk the night before the great race. No pairing. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: Padme, Qui-Gon and the rest of SW universe (c) George Lucas. I'm writing just for fun, no profit etc. etc.

Warnings: none.

Parirings: none xP

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**Your Highness **

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_In these days of nameless faces_

_There's no one truth, but only pieces_

_My life is all I have to give_

Eugenio Finardi, _Dare to live (Vivere) _

-- 

He has just sent Anakin to sleep. He knew he should have some sleep himself, before the coming day. But he didn't feel like sleeping. There was a disturbance in the Force. Or maybe disturbances. Something was wrong. He hoped the cool night air would help with the thinking.

He heard silent footsteps from behind him. He turned.

She came closer, standing next to him on a little balcony. She adjusted the blanket, falling off her shoulders. The nights in the desert were cold.

'Shouldn't you be sleeping, Padme?' he asked.

'I tried, but couldn't... Shouldn't you be sleeping, too, master Jinn?' asked the girl, giving him a merry, impish glance.

'Couldn't...' he muttered.

They stared at the starry sky. The night wind was cold and somehow... distressing. Something was in that wind...

Padme was the first to break the silence.

'Is it true you Jedi can see the future?'

'Sometimes,' he answered, still looking at the sky, half-lost in thoughts. 'But it's not what you'd call foreseeing. Sometimes we can glimpse what may be. But the future is always changing.'

'That is... we do change it, right?'

'Yes.'

'What if we change it by discovering one of its possibilities... and make it worse?'

'You can never be sure. That's why I don't like it... Sometimes it's better not to know, and trust your insight.'

There was another long silence.

'You know you're risking much,' again she was the first to speak.

'You mean the race tomorrow?' he looked at her.

'Yes', she looked back.

'I know.'

'I don't... I don't think the Queen would approve.'

'I don't approve either. It's just we don't have much of a choice. I hope you... see that. As for the Queen, she should understand.'

'I... think she will.'

Again silence fell. He watched her looking at the sky. She was too serious for her age. It shouldn't be so. It was almost as if she'd been a Jedi apprentice. Almost...

A blurred vision glimpsed. A new apprentice in the Temple, a young girl...

It wasn't the future. He knew. It was an alternate past. She could become a Jedi, if she hadn't been destined for something else. Force was strong within her. He wondered why he hadn't noticed before.

'This boy,' she asked, still watching the sky. 'There's something about him, isn't it?'

'Yes,' he confirmed. 'Force is strong within him.'

'Oh...'

'Why did you ask?' something in her reaction made him all alert.

'Today, when he offered he could take part in the race,' she turned to face him. 'I felt... saw...'

He gave her a questionning look.

'It was... I don't know, like a set of blurred pictures or something... I don't even remember them. But I know they were important. Could you... could you see them for me?'

He hesitated.

'Please?' she urged.

'All right. Just give me a second.'

He closed his eyes and concentrated. Gently touched her mind with the Force... At first she flinched, but then let him enter. There they were... pictures... Pieces of the future. A little wooden pendant. Coruscant, a meeting of the Senate... Some glipmses of Naboo lake district... A wedding, a lady in white and a young Jedi knight... Anakin? Happiness... Hope... And then darkness, descending... Fear... Treason... Pain... Two children... Death... The children... Hope?

He opened his eyes.

'Have you seen anything?'

'A few pictures. Feelings, rather,' he answered.

'Could you tell me?'

He couldn't hurt her. In time she'll learn... But not now.

'A gift from a friend. Some politics. Love. Marriage. Happiness. Children, twins. Some fear... Some pain...'

'And death?... Well, I suppose that's how every life ends.'

'Quite so.'

'And that's moreless how every life is like... Happiness and pain. Mixed.'

He looked her straight into face and saw that she guessed what her future really was. And – to his utter surprise – she kind of felt the alternate past also.

And once more it was her who spoke.

'Master Jinn?'

He sighed.

'Please make it 'Qui-Gon'. I'm not very much used to my official 'title'.'

'Oh, all right. It's just...'

She looked as if she'd been afraid.

'Don't be afraid, just say it,' he encouraged.

'There is one picture I do remember. I've seen death...' she gave him such a gaze he understood instantly. 'Your death. If you return to Naboo...'

He said nothing.

'Master Qui-Gon? I just mean... You don't have to go back there. You don't. I... I think the Queen would understand. I'm sure she will.'

He glanced at her warmly, with a shade of sadness. And compassion.

'No, I don't have to. I choose to. After all, death is how every life ends.'

She didn't reply.

'I guess the Queen also doesn't have to risk her life for her people, as she is doing right now, does she... Your Highness?'

'No, she doesn't...' whispered Padme, with a little, very sad smile on her face. 'She just chooses to...'


End file.
